Wot a strange and unfocussed week, personally speaking. Work on Shadowmasque has been fitful since the flat I live in has been undergoing spasms of redecorating, which has led to the hall carpet being taken up and declared decrepit and fit only for the midden....while the gas appliance inspector bloke came to look over the boiler the cooker, whereupon he declared the cooker a decrepit hazard fit only for....along with the pipes which were seemingly to narrow. Thus, a new cooker was indeed purchased by our esteemed landlord (sound of jaws striking floor was heard) and the gas IB arrived this morning to extract the old pipes and cooker and insert the new updates. Some 10 hours later we finally gasped as we finished the clearup after the work, and took a well earned rest.
No chance that I`ll get any writing done tonight - so I`ll have to make a real effort tomorrow.
Just heard on late news that Alaister Campbell will definitely be leaving his No 10 job - gotta love that timing, just after his boss puts in his appearance at the Hutton Enquiry, so his final act on Tone`s behalf is to cut into the wordage devoted to the Beloved Leader in the weekend papers. Okay, so thats my cynical view of events. But its all such a sideshow anyway, compared to the ghastly shambles that Iraq has turned into since Blair and Bush dragged us into invading the place. Its difficult to maintain the right level of caustic anger at these people, but every day or so I read something that restokes the fire for me.
Am currently exploring small press publishers in the UK with a view to puting out a collection of my short stories and have just received my first knockback! Ah yes, there`s nothing like rejection for strengthening character, y`know! Still, onward and upward....
Aarrrr, long time not bin in. Slightly weird, the last coupla weeks, ending with some really strange Russian insights. Still trying to put the S&S convulsion behind me to get on with writing book 3, while dealing with interviewing some new folk for the vacant room in our flat (now filled, finally).
The Russian connection arose while I was doing an egosurf on Google coupla nights ago - well, it never palls to see my name mentioned on this or that website or page, etc, but that search began turning up several pages in Russian. Eventually found one page that was from an online Russian bookdealer, showing my first book, Shadowkings - never has my gob been so smacked! I had signed contract back in the spring, and by `eck they didn`t waste time putting it out. Also came across an SF/fantasy chat-forum where one of the threads was on my book. Being desperate to know what they were saying, I searched and found an online Russian translator site, and duly copied and pasted cyrillic text and let the translator do its magic. Turns out that some of these readers quite liked it, but other found it too gloomy and bleak! Coming from Russians, thats quite some overview, in a pot and kettle kinda way!
Back on the bookseller website, I got a thumbnail sized glimpse of the jacket illustration....ahem, suffice to say that it wouldn`t have been my choice, m`afraid.
Some site you might like to take a gander at, if you`re of a politically progressive slant of mind - Smirking Chimp, Common Dreams, and Countepunch, 3 of the best, all stuffed with articles that will stretch your mind. And for a good laugh, you can`t go wrong with whitehouse.org - wicked stuff.
